The Best
by Generalpandathefourth
Summary: A prompt fill for another one done in Creating A Brighter Smile au


"Stop cheating," Addie yelled in her whiniest cry. It was a pitch she'd been perfecting for years, Ben swore she started at birth, and it worked like a charm.

He screwed his face up in annoyance and waited for the accompanying 'knock it off'. There was a long pause, only the sounds of the background music and jamming of controller buttons buzzing in the air. He made a sharp turn and drove through a box to get an item. A green turtle shell. He smirked as he glanced at the bottom half of the screen to see his sister one person behind himself.

"Play fair or I'm turning it off," mom yelled from wherever she was in the house. There was no real threat to her words, her voice tired and uncaring, so Ben didn't take the advice. He waited for Mario to get close behind, line right up with his own kart, and threw the turtle shell affectionately slowing him enough for Addie to zoom by and gain second place.

"Ha," Addie shouted triumphantly. "You missed!"

"Who said anything about missing? Maybe I wanted him out of the way so I could crush you on my own," Ben said with an air of confidence he tried to harness of his moms. She was a super-cop, respected on command, always cool and in control. Ben admired that and wanted to be just like her one day; a super-cop.

He couldn't see his sister but he knew her well enough to know she'd rolled her eyes with exaggerated perfection.

"Whatever it was it was a big mistake. All I need now is one good hit and I win."

They both flew by the start line. Last lap. The heat was on as they both leaned forward, concentration at an all time high. One wrong move and it'd be over for either of them. Ben burst another box seconds before Addie. A red turtle shell, he grinned evilly. His sister only getting an extra boost and uses it right away. Addie squeals with delight as she speeds past him, unknowing of what was to come, squashing the triumph in his chest.

Instead of the warm light of winning filling his rib cage, fueling a cry of victory from deep in his gut, it was replaced with heavy-swampy _guilt_. His baby sister would be crushed if he were to throw the shell and cross the finish line first. Addie had been practicing for weeks, doing grand-pix and time laps by herself, challenging everyone who walked through the door. She'd been working _so hard_ to be as good as him and their mom. And to be so close to winning after a couple rounds of being seconds behind, to be ahead for once, losing would smash her spirits. Ben couldn't do that.

He let go of the gas for a second, giving the six year old a leg of race time, and threw the turtle shell behind him.

"Oh come on," he bellowed in fake anger, "I threw it at _her_ not Peach!"

Addie giggled, already on a winning high. The sound swirled through his chest, wound around his heart, and squeezed at his heart like an elastic made of affection. The gleeful winning laughter of his sister was always a weak spot. He'd do anything, lose anything, if it meant that chime could ring throughout the house.

Ben fought a smile as he watched Princess Daisy cross the finish line just up the road. He had to act upset that he lost or else Addie would know and they'd have to play until she actually beat him fair and square. Which she kind of did.

"I won," Addie cheered at the top of her lungs and jumped up from her seat on the couch. She bounced around the room, doing a weird victory dance only their Uncle Steve could have taught her. All while repeatedly exclaiming that she'd won.

Ben rolled his eyes playfully. "You only won because the stupid shell went behind me," he pointed out.

Addie stopped her dance log enough to stick her tongue out at him. "Winning is winning," she retorted, skipping out of the room.

Ben shook his head and aloud himself to smile. Addie was insufferable at times but she was cute and he loved to make her happy. It was his job as big brother after all; Uncle Steve had told him so all those years ago.

 _"_ _You're going to have a baby sister very soon, Ben, it's not just you anymore," Uncle Steve said seriously. Which was a little weird because he was always smiling and joking around._

 _Ben nodded. "I gon' be a big brother."_

 _"_ _She's going to cry. A lot," he informed him. "And your moms are going to be tired so you have to help them out. Make the baby laugh, creating laughter is the best thing a big brother can do."_

 _Laughter. He could do that. Making mommies laugh wasn't hard at all, it couldn't be that hard to make a baby laugh. And he was always coming up with new funny faces._

 _"_ _I can do that," Ben smiled to his Uncle._

 _Uncle Steve smiled right back, all teeth and warmth. He wrapped an arm around the five year old and brought him closer. "You're going to be the best big brother in the world."_

Uncle Steve hadn't been wrong, laughter really was the best he could do as big brother.

"Hey butt-face-loser," Addie poked her head into the room to catch his attention, "mommy made smoothies."

Ben scrambled to his feet and raced to catch up with his sister. "Thanks snot-nose-winner," he mocked half heatedly and pat the top of her head.

Addie ducked out of the gesture and bumped into his legs. "Wiener," she cursed him with a smile in her voice.

"Quit the name calling or I'll save all of the smoothies for mama," mom warned with a fake stink-eye.

The two pretended to zip their lips closed, throw away the key, and innocently clasped their hands in front of themselves. Mom laughed and went back to pouring their drinks.

Yeah, laughter was the best.

 _ **A/N: Writing has not been coming easily in the past six months, if at all really, and because of that I haven't been able to update Anything. So I'm really sorry it's been so long since any of us got an update on ongoing fics, the biggest one being Wife and Child. I'm trying to figure out what the fuck the block is so I can fix it and actually start writing again (I'm literally drowning in not being able to). Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you liked it!**_


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